Ministry of Civil Aviation to review airline's new pricing policy after passengers protest

No-frills carrier IndiGo has rolled out a new seating policy, which effectively requires you to pay extra if you want to do a web check-in. Up until now, passengers who wanted to block a preferred seat had to pay a Seat Selection fee. Till a few days ago, you could choose not to pay and still do a web check-in to save precious minutes and stress at the airport. However, as per the revised policy introduced on 14 November 2018, you must pay and select a seat if you want to proceed with a web check-in. And it doesn’t matter what seat it is: window, aisle, middle; front of the plane or back–they are all chargeable.

The airline confirmed the new policy in response to queries on Twitter this morning.

As per our revised policy, all seats will be chargeable for web check-in. Alternatively, you may check-in at the airport for free. Seats will be assigned as per the availability. ~Prabh

A check-in effectively confirms that you are indeed taking the flight that you booked. To do that now, one must either pay for the seat selection or arrive early at the airport and do it at a kiosk or the counter. IndiGo’s new policy could mean longer queues at the counters or kiosks, not to mention additional workload for its staff. No surprise then that the airline is getting some strong feedback.

ICYMI. All Indigo web checked-in are charged now. I thought DIY was the way forward for businesses. https://t.co/Cf5DUl0jT3

Then what is the idea of having web check in? As it is you do not allow for Senior citizens, Defence Forces etc. @jayantsinha, may wish to look into this because the queue will get longer for us and many of us have had difficulty standing for long periods of time. Jain Hind

To be sure, the revised seating policy will not affect those booked on corporate fare: these fliers will continue to enjoy complimentary seat selection, which effectively allows “free” web check-in. Also note that certain categories of fares (children, senior citizen and defence personnel) continue to remain ineligible for web check-in, as the staff has to validate identify documents first. But for others, the new rule will take time getting used to.

On Tuesday, IndiGo issued a statement clarifying its policy:

“…IndiGo confirms that there is no change in the airline’s web check-in practice. Keeping in mind consumer preferences and market demand, IndiGo makes dynamic decisions about pricing for Advance Seat selection. This segmentation helps us to serve different customer segments as per their requirements… The pricing of different seats is dynamic in nature and may vary based on aircraft type, length of the route, occupancy, days before departure etc.

This is to further clarify that IndiGo customers will NOT compulsorily have to pay for the seats. The pricing is only for advance selection of seats. When the customer checks in at the airport, the seats would be assigned for free. That said, there is no guarantee that the seat of choice for the passenger would be available at the time of airport check-in. Advance selection for a small fee helps consumers reserve the seat of their choice on their flight.

While the preferred seat pricing starts as low as INR 100, there would be some seats that may be available for free depending on the market dynamics for the flight. Thus, there are some seats that are available for free at a certain time period before departure (e.g. 1 day before departure) or on certain aircraft type (e.g., ATR operated flights). If the passengers have no particular preference for seats and would not like to pay for advance seat selection, they can either reserve any free seats available at the time of web check-in or will, of course, be assigned seats at the time of airport check-in.

This is a common practice followed by airlines across the globe. The customers can always obtain the seat at the airport kiosk check-in or counter, though this may not guarantee that they would be assigned the seat of their choice.”